Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 244 Dumbledore's Malice for Vaughn

The idea of ​​"being content with the status quo," preferring to remain stagnant rather than embrace change and adapt to the world, is not uncommon among the human race.

It could even be said that such people constitute the majority throughout human history.

Of course, just like in history, when the opportunity for change arrives, there are also many people willing to support "change"!

Poirot was a very ordinary wizard.

He graduated from Durmstrang in his youth and then returned to Austria to work for the German Ministry of Magic. In the magical world, due to cultural, customary, and demographic reasons, the relationship between Austria and Germany is much closer than that between Muggle society, and their political system is similar to that of the Commonwealth of Nations.

To be precise, similar systems exist extensively throughout continental Europe.

For example, Southern Europe with France at its core, the Baltic states, Scandinavia, and the Russian Federation spanning Eurasia, etc.

The sparse population is the most fundamental problem plaguing these countries, especially during the two Muggle world wars.

Poirot was born after World War II. He had not experienced pre-war society and could not deeply understand his homeland or why Germany had instigated the war.

But he knew that the two wars that swept the world were inextricably linked to the European magical world.

"Purebloods—they've never changed when it comes to protecting their interests."

Recalling the increasingly heated reports and editorials in the Austrian newspaper "Die Prophet" regarding the werewolf parade.

Even an ordinary wizard like Poirot could sense the impending storm.

but----

"Yes, the purebloods have never changed. After all, people always like to maintain inertia and stay in a familiar comfort zone, even if they know it's wrong."

Leonid gazed at the shadowy Nurmengard in the night and said, "However, not everyone is like that. Whenever change comes, the conservatives become even more conservative in order to protect themselves, but those outside the conservatives, driven by the opportunity, become more enlightened, restless, and excited—"

"Among them are reformers who are dissatisfied with the status quo and try to innovate, speculators who see opportunities, and ambitious people who fear nothing more than a peaceful world—Poirot. The world we see is not as desolate as this mountain range. In fact, it is changing and becoming unfamiliar every moment."

Poirot hadn't expected Leonid's answer to be like this.

He was somewhat confused: "Does this have anything to do with my question?"

"Of course it's relevant. If you had paid more attention to news from the wizarding world in the past two months, you would have known that Vaughn Weasley led the WAC to North America during the summer vacation. If you had paid more attention to intelligence within the Federation, you would have known that Vaughn Weasley clashed with the Magical Congress of America and that he killed hundreds of Aurors in the Alabacia Mountains."

Poirot looked astonished, his mouth agape.

Until he heard Leonid say, "—until he encountered a legendary wizard, confirmed by Vice President Arkinbard as Wilkinson, one of the twelve purebloods—"

He couldn't help but speak up: "Wilkinson? Hasn't he been missing for a long time? The Federation has always believed that his life was nearing its end—"

Leonid shrugged: "Obviously, we were wrong. No, we should say our initial assessment was correct, but as I said before, the world is not static. Wilkinson may have regained his spellcasting ability, just like Grindelwald."

Poirot was at a loss for words.

Leonid withdrew his gaze from Nurmengard, noticing the confusion on his colleague's face, and explained, "I know you're a little confused; this change is indeed beyond our common sense. From a young age, we've known that magic grows with a young wizard and gradually declines with age. Even the Flamels only managed to live for centuries thanks to his legendary alchemy."

"But let's look at it from another angle: if Lemaître can do it, how can we be so sure that Grindelwald and Wilkinson can't?"

Poirot hesitated for a moment, wanting to refute, but couldn't bring himself to say it.

Yes, Flamel can do it, so why would he think other legendary wizards can't?

After struggling for a moment, Poirot sighed in frustration: "I'm just worried about the magic in the future—no!" He looked at Nurmengard again, staring at the dark doorway of the castle, which resembled a gaping maw of a deep abyss, giving him a sense of impending doom.

He knew that what he feared was not the doorway or the darkness behind it.

Instead, it was the master of Nurmengard who was imprisoned behind the door!

I'm worried about this world—

Poirot did not experience the era when Grindelwald and the Saints were all-powerful in the wizarding world. By the time he was born, Grindelwald had already been imprisoned in Nurmengard by Dumbledore, and the Saints had fallen apart.

But his parents came from that era, and he grew up listening to Grindelwald's stories.

What he could never get over was that his parents greatly admired Grindelwald, praising the wave of change he had sparked and the banner of resistance he had raised.

A child, whose father and mother are all-powerful in his heart, admires another person.

The impact of those ideas and beliefs has lingered to this day, causing Poirot to tremble whenever he recalls his childhood stories.

Perhaps his previous complaints stemmed from his fear of the old man locked in that castle.

A cold wind swept through the forest, raising goosebumps on Poirot's skin.

Poirot wasn't sure if the coldness came from the outside or from within.

In truth, he was filled with confusion: "What will this world become in the future?"

Grindelwald and Wilkinson, who "resurrected from the ashes," and Vaughn Weasley, as described by Leonid—WAC—

=

"Don't worry about it so much, dear Poirot." Leonid, who had been watching him closely, spoke with a relaxed tone. "We're old, and we don't have any great ambitions anymore. We can't change anything. Let the future of this world be left to the people of the future!"

"People from the future —"

"Yes," Leonid shrugged. "And those kids still in school—speaking of which, is your son Poirot in Beauxbatons or Durmstrang?"

Poirot's confused thoughts were pulled back by his question. "Of course it's Durmstrang. What's wrong?"

He and his son are both Austrian, how could they possibly go to Beauxbatons!

Pufa's love and hate are deeply ingrained in his bones.

Just like the century-old friendship between Britain and France!

Leonid smiled. "I think you could consider having your son participate in Vaughn Weasley's international magic school exchange program."

"comminicate----?"

Poirot thought for a moment before recalling that he had indeed recently heard that Dumbledore and Vaughn Weasley were involved in some kind of potion exchange program under the name of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

However, since I was assigned to Nurmengard, my attention was focused on Grindelwald, and I didn't learn much about him.

If Leonid had said these words before the conversation, he certainly wouldn't have listened.

but----

future----

After a moment of struggle, Poirot slowly nodded: "I—I will write a letter to young Poirot."

"I never knew you had a hobby of eavesdropping."

An old, mocking voice suddenly came from behind.

This is a large hall on the third floor of the castle. It is spacious but not bright. Small windows open into the thick walls, letting in only a little bit of the sunlight reflected from the white snow outside.

It exudes a chilling coldness.

Behind me, a flickering light emanated from the fireplace.

Dumbledore, standing by the window, turned around. The dim firelight and the figure sitting before the fireplace, his body completely...

Wrapped entirely in a soft wool blanket, a figure warmed by a fire came into view.

The wool blanket looked familiar; it was a gift from him.

In fact, he was the only one who would deliver many of the essential supplies to the castle.

He looked at the figure in front of the fireplace: "How's it going, Gellert? Should we turn the fire up a bit?"

"Thank you, that's good. I'm getting old, and I can't handle a really strong fire." Grindelwald turned and smiled, then refocused his attention on the newspaper in his hand. "Actually, I'd prefer you brought more magazines and newspapers rather than lighting the fireplace. How interesting—what did you overhear, Albus?"

Dumbledore ignored the teasing in his tone, his expression gentle, and answered every question: "Nothing much, just two wizards complaining about the current situation and worrying and planning for the future."

As he spoke, he left the window, and the faint light of the Extrasensory Charm slowly dissipated. When he stepped into the range of the firelight, Dumbledore showed no abnormalities.

He sat down on another sofa, facing Grindelwald, the title page of the Daily Prophet open in the latter's hand reflected in his pupils.

Grindelwald remained engrossed in reading the newspaper, casually asking, "The present? The future?"

"Those are the ones you see in the newspaper."

"Ah, a werewolf parade?"

"And there's Vaughn's international magic high school exchange program—" Dumbledore revealed everything he knew, including Vaughn's desire to join Hogwarts' curriculum and the potions exchange project.

As he spoke, Grindelwald gradually put down the newspaper.

Only after Dumbledore finished speaking did he suddenly ask, "You actually allowed him to dabble in teaching? If I remember correctly, when Tom Riddle wanted to apply for a professorship at Hogwarts, you weren't this lenient."

Dumbledore smiled.

But under Grindelwald's gaze, the smile gradually faded, turning into a sigh: "—Ever since I discovered last year that Quirinas had been bewitched and parasitized by Tom, I've been thinking about one thing: perhaps, I really did make a mistake back then—"

"In what way?" Grindelwald asked, sounding very interested.

Dumbledore, unfazed by his amusement, sighed and said, "A lot—from the very first time we met, when I discovered he was using his magic to bully other Muggles, steal, and rob, my handling of the situation was flawed. I wanted to tell him not to abuse his power, but instead, I warned him by displaying my own power—"

Hahahaha

Grindelwald laughed heartily, laughing until tears streamed down his face. His aged body couldn't hold back his laughter and he began to cough violently.

Dumbledore stood up and gently patted his back.

After a long while, Grindelwald finally recovered, his breath still tinged with laughter. "No wonder you never told me when I asked you why you didn't teach that little guy well—hahaha, just like you would do when you were young, hahaha—"

"—So, you regret it and decided to treat Vaughn Weasley differently?"

"Perhaps—" As if oblivious to the subtle mockery in Grindelwald's words, Dumbledore said somewhat uncertainly and calmly, "During the years he ravaged the land as the Dark Lord, I did believe that his fall was partly my fault."

"It is inevitable that a child who grows up in an orphanage and has never experienced love will make mistakes. Later, I observed many Muggle orphanages. They are not places with warmth. Resources are limited, and many children have to learn to compete from the time they are old enough to understand things. He initially relied on his strength to bully and steal, which is his instinct as a living being. There is no right or wrong in essence."

"My mistake was that I assumed he was addicted to violence and decided to intimidate him—now that I think about it, an 11-year-old child, whose worldview was just beginning to sprout and who had just come into contact with the magical world, ended up with me, the Hogwarts professor who came to him and was about to pull him out of the mire, recklessly displaying my power in front of him."

"His lifelong blind pursuit of power and authority may have been formed at that time. What I thought were teachings were actually nightmares left in his heart."

Dumbledore had said the same thing to Vaughn.

This is not an attempt to whitewash Tom. As he once told Vaughn, if he could go back in time, he would nip Tom's evil in the bud when he was still weak.

That was a firm belief filled with hatred.

But that doesn't stop him from summarizing what it was and shaping the evil and paranoia in Tom's heart.

After all, the past cannot be changed, and learning from mistakes is to avoid repeating them.

Dumbledore snapped out of his reverie, looked at Grindelwald whose smile had faded and who was now listening intently to him, and sighed: "Tom's disciplinary mistake only needs to be made once."

"But you seem to have gone to the other extreme," Grindelwald said noncommittally. "Your current indulgence of him is simply not what you would normally do—don't tell me you haven't noticed his ambitions in participating in the Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum reform. You should know that he's trying to form cliques, and there's that potion exchange project—"

"I've done this kind of thing before, I'm very familiar with it: increase your reputation, cultivate public support, and then, manipulate public opinion—yes, he's been doing this since he founded WAC."

Dumbledore remained silent for a long time before finally speaking: "I know."

"————" Grindelwald wasn't surprised, only puzzled: "Why?"

Dumbledore didn't answer him immediately, but remained silent for a moment before suddenly saying, "Actually, about a month ago, when Vaughn was still in America, I thought many times about leaving him there—it was a good opportunity. The chaotic situation in North America, the unpredictable and turbulent political stances, the conflicts of ideas, concepts, and interests, were like a giant whirlpool. It seemed only natural that a little wizard would be caught in that turbulent undercurrent—"

As he spoke, he chuckled and said, "Vaughn once said that all the problems in the world, in the final analysis, are caused by the people who cause the problems. Once the people are gone, the problems will naturally disappear as well—what a tempting statement."

He was so tempted that he almost did it.

Dumbledore had almost forgotten that during that time, he sat in the highest office in Hogwarts Castle, overlooking the peaceful campus, the mirror-like Black Lake, and the misty Forbidden Forest in the distance.

How many times has the thought of "solving this once and for all" lingered in my mind?

There is no need for "labor" at all.

If he pretends not to know when Vaughn asks for his help, there is a high probability that he will trap Vaughn in North America—before that, he already knows that Vaughn's progress is not going well.

Akinbad also reported to the Federation that "DeSantis" was likely a legendary wizard.

Even across the ocean, Dumbledore could imagine how dangerous Vaughn's situation was at the time—trapped in Boston with no way to leave, with the Magical Congress eyeing him from the front and a legendary wizard of unknown origin behind.

As long as he sits in Hogwarts and pretends to be oblivious, all his worries about the future will disappear.

but----

"I can't do that—"

Dumbledore gazed at the fireplace where flames licked at the firewood, his azure eyes reflecting the firelight, appearing somewhat hazy: "You ask me why, I can't really explain it myself. Maybe it's because I'm old, and I no longer have the decisiveness of my youth—no, now it seems more like arbitrariness and stubbornness."

"It could also be because Vaughn is different from Tom. Tom's evil is more like an outlet, an outlet for his childhood trauma, his inferiority complex, and his fears, while Vaughn—" Dumbledore hesitated for a moment before saying, "He has ideals, just like—"

"Just like me?"

Grindelwald chimed in.

"----yes!"

"Since last year, I've always heard you say he's like me." Grindelwald's aged face showed curiosity as he smiled and asked, "Can I tell you where the resemblance lies? Personality? Ambition? Or ambition?"

Their relationship was not just that of friends or enemies; a long, long time ago, they were lovers.

Therefore, Grindelwald made no attempt to conceal his question.

Dumbledore didn't find it abrupt. He continued to look at the fireplace, his voice somewhat ethereal: "Both of you are decisive—you all have your own judgments on everything. Once you've made up your mind based on your own judgment, you won't easily change it, nor will you be influenced by others."

"As for his aspirations, although Vaughn always suppresses many of his thoughts in front of me, I know he is a true reformer—in many conversations, I can sense his deep dissatisfaction with the current state of the wizarding world!"

Grindelwald, who was listening attentively, couldn't help but chuckle: "The European magical world is rotten to the core. Any person with a sound mind would want to smash it to pieces."

Although he was smiling, the hostility in his words still made Dumbledore frown slightly.

He turned to look at Grindelwald, his beard twitching, as if he instinctively wanted to retort, but for some reason, he ultimately didn't say anything.

He paused for a moment, then continued, "No, he's different from you in this respect."

"Oh?" Grindelwald raised his snow-white eyebrows and stared at Dumbledore.

Ignoring the almost undisguised provocation in his eyes, Dumbledore paused and said, "You are proud, Gellert. Your dissatisfaction with the wizarding world stems from the Statute of Secrets, enacted by those pure-blood families more than 300 years ago, which stripped wizards of their power and handed it over to Muggles."

"What you can't accept is that the Secrecy Act, ostensibly for the protection of Muggles, only restricts wizards and not Muggles. You can't accept that wizards with powerful magic should repeatedly yield to Muggles, even when they bully us and plunder our interests."

On the other side, listening to Dumbledore's story, Grindelwald narrowed his eyes: "I'm glad you still remember these things. I thought you had forgotten them more than 90 years ago."

"I haven't forgotten, Gellert. In fact, even now, I understand your discontent and anger—"

"That's really touching," Grindelwald interrupted him, somewhat sarcastically. "If you hadn't locked me up in Nurmengard for 50 years, I almost would have believed you."

well----

Dumbledore sighed inwardly.

Differences in opinion and the initial conflict caused him and Grindelwald to drift further and further apart, like two intersecting lines.

There's no point in trying to salvage the relationship; he's already tried all those years ago.

So he didn't say anything more and turned the topic back to Vaughn: "Like I said, Vaughn is different from you, he—"

Dumbledore paused, his brow furrowed, his azure eyes somewhat lost in thought, as if he were recalling memories, pondering, or deliberating.

After a long pause, he shook his head: "Vaughn—he has never paid attention to the issues you've considered. No, to be precise, he probably thinks that the conflict between wizards and Muggles, which I'm concerned about, is not worth thinking about!"

————?

'

Grindelwald cast a questioning look at him.

"I have no evidence, but in my conversations with him, my intuition tells me that he is fundamentally indifferent to the fate of wizards, the fate of Muggles, or the future of this world—that intuition is chilling. Many times, I feel like I'm not facing a person, but something wrapped in a false shell of thought, devoid of any emotion or humanity!"

Dumbledore had been holding these words in his heart for a long time.

From the moment he first noticed Vaughn, the over-100-year-old wizard harbored a question in his mind.

At first, he thought it was his imagination.

But over the past year, as their interactions have increased, he has become quite certain that the child who often dislikes him and sometimes jokes with him is just pretending!

Beneath the Buddha's sometimes cold, sometimes playful exterior lies an indifference that is indistinguishable from that of other wizards—a disdain for Muggles, wizards, and the world.

Just like the absolute rationality described in Muggle books!

This is not to say that Vaughn has no emotions; on the contrary, Dumbledore could sense that Vaughn's emotions were very rich.

He cares about his family, loves Hermione Granger, and enjoys going to Ravenclaw to play with the little girls.